The next set of Dystopia city blocks is nearing completion. Due to technical problems, for Poser 4 users we are not able to offer the switching geometry figures that were in the last set but will instead have only the prop versions. However switching geometry figures will be available for Pro Pack and Poser 5. I plan to offer Poser 5 support this time with P5 optimised materials and P5 specific prop and figure files. At this stage I don't plan to offer light sets or backgrounds in this package, unlike the last package. I'm open to persuasion if enough people want those features, but my idea is to offer full P5 support instead. I may create a free lights and backgrounds package that can be used with all Dystopia City Block sets at a later date. (Picture rendered in Vue 4 - I just got it on Wednesday and couldn't resist playing)

This bonus Starport figure is included in the package. Please excuse the cheesy 50's sci-fi landscape. This is my first attempt at doing a low atmosphere planet landscape in Vue and it shows ;-)

This bonus Starport figure is included in the package. Please excuse the cheesy 50's sci-fi landscape. This is my first attempt at doing a low atmosphere planet landscape in Vue and it shows ;-)

Attached Link: Dystopia

I guess Poser 4 users will have this happen more and more. :O(

Oh bugger....and I was trying to save money this month...

Bad news for both of you :-( Yes, I think not supporting P4 is going to happen more and more. In this case we delayed release of this product for months trying to find a solution but in the end we failed and had to abandon the P4 switching figures. P4 just can't handle that many polygons in a single figure (it's the geometry rsr creation that falls down) and all of our attempts to reduce the polycount enough wound up lowering detail to an unacceptable level. In general though, things like geometry rsrs and bum format bump maps make P4 a pain to support and the trend I think I'm seeing is for more and more customers to move to P5, so supporting P4 is becoming a less and less attractive option for developers. I plan to keep P4 support for as long as I can, but there's some stuff I just can't do in P4. And now the bad news for Jody :-( With three of us working on this we get a pretty small return each. For the last package, Renderosity gave us 60% of the sales price which worked out to $5 for each of us per sale. Since Renderosity announced that it will now give us only 50% of the sales price, we will have to put the price up from $25 to $30 in order to still get $5 for each of us. The good side of this is that we'll be offering the product through other stores where we'll be able to sell it at a lower price. Currently we expect this to be Poser Pros and 3DC.

Looks great! Been waiting for these, I really like the sets you guys have done. I've got a use for that Starport! --Donnie

However switching geometry figures will be available for "Pro Pack and Poser 5". Propack?

Looking sweet and the star/moon base does look VERRRRRY sweet.

Looks good! :] Fish

Philywebrider, Yep, we plan to have the figures for Poser Pro Pack. Unlike Poser 4, Poser Pro Pack does away geometry rsr files and just uses the obj, so the figures should work fine in Pro Pack. Lee, I should have this ready for testing early next week, so I hope you don't have too much on just now ;-) Fish, Thanks. I'm sure Moe plans the same arrangement as last time. Remind me after they come out and I'll get it sorted.

Cool are you going to move the other set to Poser Pros also? Have it in my cart here, but would rather give you the larger percentage over there. :) Cheers!

"The good side of this is that we'll be offering the product through other stores where we'll be able to sell it at a lower price." Glad to hear. I've already canceled several buys from R'City because I found the item I wanted cheaper somewhere else. So, I'll be looking. Still sad about the P4 thing but, what the heck, right?

Is there any chance you could make the default state be that the night lights are off? I'm currently using the previous package and having to use the mat pose to turn the lights off is one extra step. Or am I missing some obvious benefit to having them default on? I love this product by the way. Keep 'em coming. -jjsemp

At this stage we're expecting to keep 21-30 as an exclusive here. The percentage change isn't retroactive so as long as we keep that first set exclusive here we can keep our 60%. Still another seven sets to go though and from what I'm seeing they just keep getting nicer each time, so you could probably afford to miss 21-30. Release at the other stores may lag behind a little this first time. Getting all three of us set up as vendors at the other stores could take a bit of coordination. I'm still sad about the P4 thing myself. I'm even sadder about how much time we sank into trying to get around it without getting a result.

jjsemp, It's just a matter of preference I guess. No matter which setting I put as the default, there'll be people that want it some other way. I like the look of the blocks best with the dusk setting myself. My suggestion would be to load the figures, apply the daytime MAT and then save the figures back to your library to save you time next time.

No problem. Good idea. Thanks. -jjsemp

"I'm still sad about the P4 thing myself. I'm even sadder about how much time we sank into trying to get around it without getting a result." That means I won't have to wait as long for the next one, right? I grabbed and loved the last one and I've been antsy waiting for the next two (to the point of almost buying the Lightwave versions and converting 'em myself -- how dumb is that?). Good news, for the most part; I'll be watching for 'em at PoserPros. In the meantime... hurry up. ;-)

Looks great! Kudos to all three of you. :)

Ajax, if, "At this stage we're expecting to keep 21-30 as an exclusive here. The percentage change isn't retroactive so as long as we keep that first set exclusive here we can keep our 60%. Still another seven sets to go though and from what I'm seeing they just keep getting nicer each time, so you could probably afford to miss 21-30", was for my benefit, thanks but I bought that one right after it came out (wink). So, I'm just watching for the future block.

Walt, You shouldn't have to wait as long for the next one I hope, no. We plan on going back and bringing the free blocks 1-10 up to date next. Billy says he hopes to have the obj conversion and UV mapping done by Christmas. If that happens, we should have the first set of free blocks up early in the new year. After that we'll do 41-50. AFAIK Moe hasn't started modelling 51-60 yet so I'm not sure where we go from there. If we get caught up to him we'll do the second set of free blocks, 11-20. Chuck, That bit of the post was aimed at Philip, who said he wanted to know if we were moving 21-30 to Poser Pros as well. I know you got 21-30 already. You were one of our first customers :-)

Ooops, hehe, there I go being self-centered again...LOL.

I'm excited to see things are back up and running. I was afraid this project was going to be abandoned,lol. I'm also very glad that it will be offered at other shops.

I was wondering when the next set was going to come out. I got the first set, and even though I haven't uploaded a render of it yet, I really like it. Looking forward to the new set! Foxx

Looks great and have been meaning to get them. Even though I am on Poser 4 and won't have th switching option it will still be worth it. Pro Pack for Mac has never been fixed into a usable product (Not that I needed most of it anyway and the rsr was never a necessary thing on the Mac) and Poser 5 was just too buggy a release it seems.

Well, I'm finished packaging and I'm sending it out to beta testers shortly. Vulcanis, We're a long way from abandoning anything to do with Dystopia. We still plan to have 100 blocks eventually and we're working on tie in products as well. Later on, I'll post a screenshot of the transport hub we're working on. It's part of our planned Dystopia Destinations series of Poser person scale sets to go with the city. Ghostofmacbeth, Poser 5 has had a lot of bad press and certainly has some shortcomings but like a lot of people I'm finding it really has a lot to offer - more than P4. Do they have a downloadable demo or something you can try?

I thougth about it but I am one of those that is sort of waiting for DAZ Studio to see what it can do. If it falls flat then I may try looking for a demo of Poser 5 but so much of it is useless since I don't plan on using Don or Judy.

Well, not long to go now. I'll be interested to see if we can make the switching figures work in DS.

I'm glad to hear about the 100 blocksand tie-ins.....but my wallet isn't=) A transport hub sounds great. I've been on the look out for something similar for ages now,lol.

I'll post a pic later. It's a big round landing pad sticking out of the side of a building. There's a covered passage from the building to the landing area with a travelator to get people out to the vehicle. Moe is working on a flying transport to go with it.

I have good news for those of you who use P4 on a Mac. My beta tester informs me that the switching figures work just fine in Mac P4, which means only PC P4 users will miss out on the switching geometry figures. This is the first time I've ever been able to offer something for Mac users that I couldn't offer for PC users. It's usually the other way around.

As promised, here's a quick render of the transport hub we're working on. These textures are a work in progress. Expect more grime and more signage on the final set. That multicoloured stuff you can see inside the bridge is stuff I haven't started texturing yet. There's a travelator and a buch of advertising boards in there.

Here's a close up of one of the lower level doors. Our aim is for you to be able to do close up renders of the key areas of the set without the textures looking bad. You can see the moving doors are slightly ajar. I've added a little bit of simple corredor on the inside - just enough so you can render people coming in and out of the open doors.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Dystopia Here is the full set of 10 blocks, 31-40.

And here they are in a city scene. The pic in my last post was rendered in Poser 4 using the prop versions. This pic is rendered in Poser 5 with just a touch of atmosphere to give the look of smog and distance.

I will definately have to pick them up .. Looks great

Attached Link: Dystopia

Have it in my wishlist already. Tks for the alert.